Return To Egypt

Return to Egypt

3/24/19

All of us have at one point in our lives wished to return to a place where we left for various reasons.  But is this a wise choice of ours and is it a real stance or one of defiance against the new stage set before us, a question that sometimes is difficult to ascertain.  When we make the decision to return to our previous land how do we feel then and how do our lives reflect this decision.  The land of captivity’s return is a dreadful thought and it should be the first thing on a freed person’s mind never to set foot on again yet for some reason many people desire to return to such settings thus living out the remainder of their lives in complete misery.  God frees His children for a reason for He does not wish for anyone to live in captivity to the sins of the world but just not the physical amounts of slavery but the desire to return along with the spiritual accounts as well.  It is our responsibility to show people the truth about life and what God desires for each of His children, not how to return to our Egypt but sometimes our will to buck God and His Ways do not give way and God has no choice but to allow us to return to this wicked and ugly place.

Returning to the past can be tricky at best, but when one does it on a continual basis others begin to wonder why even leave in the first place.  We find this state of affairs true in quite a number of personal relationships where breakups occur for certain unobtainable reasons between both or either or parties involved.  So, why don’t we learn from our mistakes and figure out that going back to a previous standard or bringing on another identical personal and intimate standard again into our lives?  Are we that difficult of a species to initiate better developments for our future instead of continually repeating them?  Over my lifetime I know I have fallen into this type of category but on the other hand, there have been a few changes that I have allowed to occur to help me see these mistakes and not to allow them to rear their ugly heads again.  How many times have we made this speech or ones like it to our friends or children even though sound advice has been previously given?  When we consider such move do we think about what Jesus said in Matthew 12:44-45 when He talks about allowing things to return into a cleaned house without the proper protection in place?  Wow! When we put into such terms things cannot help but be placed into a different category, but for some reason, we do not mind this truth infiltrating our lives again.

No matter how often we do our best to reiterate these changes for those who we love it seems like the majority of the time it falls on deaf ears and sometime down the road, we are witnessing another breakup that takes this indescribable pain to the core of our friends.   It has also been noted that even when people have made the decision to stay away from their troubled pasts they occasionally have a flashback and wonder what it would be like to try and face that scene again.  Drug users, alcoholics, and other people who have come out of abusive habitual situations often face such look-backs with some of them returning to the scene of the crime if one wishes to look at things in that manner.  In either way, it takes a hard stance against worldly practices to finally free one from such grasps and as each day rolls past us we can only wonder how many fall back into that slavery lifestyle.  We even have such an example in the Bible to show us exactly what occurs when people want to return to a captive state.  At the same time, we have the willingness of God to display His authority over people’s lives and then again down the road allow such return when the same people do not understand what they have been through and what shall occur when they return to such “been through”.

We have two biblical passages that most people are familiar with and have heard plenty of sermons on as well.  These passages have been subjects of movies have been scrutinized by public matters about their content and the will of the people over God and almost anything other controversial ideas that the human mind can dream up.  But as these passages continue to stand up faithful and true to all of the finite public scrutinies, it should be taken notice that what has been recorded in the Bible is true especially when it comes to humans and how they/we conduct us when adverse settings arise.  But no, we know better than to take into account the truth about others’ demises for we know better now and do not have to worry about such petty problems in the past.  One passage occurs in Exodus when the Israelites are at the Red Sea and want to return to Egypt and the other passage is in 1 Samuel 8 when God allows the nation of Israel to leave His protection and join the world.

Every time I hear this passage of Scripture in Exodus when it is speaking about the children of Israel wandering through the desert I am reminded of the song by Keith Green “So You Want To Go Back To Egypt”.  It is a comical song at times but more importantly, it serves as a beautifully written and powerful message of what the Israelites were thinking back then and how our ways of looking at things, relate to humans today.  For as stated above, we tend to be drawn to the fact that we believe that if we return to certain things in our past that circumstances will be different or better and for those who do accomplish this task often find out that things and conditions are worse than before and more wounds are opened that sometimes lasts forever, and these kinds of ways of thinking tend to be pushed to the forefront when times take a turn for the excited.  Exodus 14:9-13 share such impulsive thoughts that were smoldering in the back of minds at that moment but were brought out in the open when this set came to a head.

The passage here in Exodus has brought the Israelites to the banks of the Red Sea and not much progress was occurring at the moment.  Of course, it would be hard not to think that Moses had misheard God when He stated which direction for them to take, for as far as their eyes could see was nothing but a vast wilderness filled with a huge dose of nothing.  Now, they were stuck at the banks of a huge wet obstacle in front of them and suddenly they heard hooves and wheels behind them in a steady motion and becoming louder.  As well as one can imagine the next stage of human reactions showed itself, panic.  So, the passage tells us in verse 12: “Is not this word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it is better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we die in the wilderness.”  This verse is a provocative one and one that states the mental beliefs of those folks who had been delivered from captivity.  We have talked about this state of their minds before and how at this point in their journey the Israelites still had no clue about what God was providing for them and what it meant that they were no longer in Egypt (captivity); thus the reason for the continued wants and complaints.

After this stage was played out, God provided another miracle in the wilderness by opening the Red Sea and allowing the Israelites to walk on dry land all the way across the sea and onto the other side.  The timing of God was impeccable and the entire train of Israelites crossed without any problems, but the Egyptians were still coming and tried their best to take advantage of the miracle of God for themselves.  We all know that the Egyptian army was swallowed up by the closing of the Red Sea and every person, chariot and animal were drowned that day, which tells us that we should never try and take advantage of God or His Ways for when we do we automatically become subject to His hand in motion.  The children of Israel were on their way once again to the Promised Land and for the immediate moment, their concerns about returning to Egypt had been quieted.  The cries to return to Egypt continued to pop up all throughout the long journey in the wilderness and for the most part the children of Israel never really got the fact of what God was doing to their lives while they were wandering during that time.  It is this aspect of their journey that while God did not allow them to return to Egypt but showed them that His Way of salvation was better than returning, a Divine fact that was missed and the way that eventually led to the next passage of Scripture in this article.

It is common knowledge that the Book of 1 Samuel occurs later down the line in the life of Israel after the wilderness but there is still one tight thread that is present over these people and that is they are ruled by God and are under His protective Covenant.  However, by the time the 1 Samuel passage comes into view, many thoughts and choices have been made to warrant this passage coming as the turning point in Israel’s existence.  We have here an excellent example of even though God is in control of people that the people are not inhibited in making their own choices concerning their lives and this is proven in the passage of 1 Samuel 8 when Israel makes the decisive choice to leave the confines of God’s Covenant to be like the other nations that they have had contact with for a while.  1 Samuel 8:6-9 is this passage with the emphasis on verse 8 where God makes a statement about the connection of these two passages.  Verse 8 states: “According to all the works they have done since the day I brought them out of Egypt even unto this day, wherewith they have forsaken me, and served other gods, so do they also unto thee.”

Now, it is easy to skip over this verse and focus on the issue at hand but God gives us a detail here that directly relates to the heart of Israel and the condition it is in.  Through this statement of God He acknowledges that fact that while the Israelites were in the wilderness, even from the day of release from Egypt, their hearts were not interested in leaving Egypt and all of the factoids that they had acquired while their stay there.  They went from being a free people in high regard and status to slaves and this change of life status did not matter to them.  Bringing us to the day that occurred in 1 Samuel 8 God says that even to this day they had no intentions to change their hearts and turn back to God even though His mercy and Grace was being demonstrated over them.  No matter one looks at this verse it must be recognized that God gives a detail here that He gave the nation of Israel plenty of time to turn completely toward Him but failed to do so.  God even gave specific dates as to when this opportunity began and where they were at that moment as well and it is obvious that the people’s heart had satisfied God’s holy equation to grant them this wish of theirs.

Up until this moment God had kept their hearts intact with His Divine Covenant and had been their leader for all their defined time but because God loved them and kept His promise to them He also allowed them to “fulfill” their desires by giving their wishes and letting them become like other nations.  It is not mentioned in Scripture here but I wonder if they really understood what their actions were doing, did they understand that they were returning to Egypt or did they miss this truth?  When the Israelites were in the wilderness it was obvious that this ragtag nation wanted to go back to the place of what they believed was their security and one has to admit that it takes guts to forge your own nation without much to survive on but this was the perfect setting for God to grab a hold of their hearts and teach them His Ways.  As one who has at a point in my past forgotten about the Grace of God and what it means to live under such a magnitude along with the fact that my heart was not willing to see the Truth about such conditions, I can see how many of the people missed what was actually transpiring when they requested and then God granted them their new status.  I can guarantee that the same type of celebratory relief would have occurred in the wilderness back in Exodus 14 as it did across Israel in 1 Samuel 8.  However, it was this decision by the nation of Israel that would eventually cost them many hardships with some almost impossible to comprehend as they unfolded in front of their eyes.

As God is speaking to Samuel in verse 8, He references their departure from Egypt according to His Ways and however since that day the children of Israel had been bucking His Ways and Laws through their own selfish desires.  The grumblings and that came from the mouths and hearts of the Israelites in the wilderness were still present in the generations to follow, we know this for the children of such grumblings will act according to what they heard when growing up and even though it had been some generations down the line that same attitude for Egypt was still present in their hearts.  If this is not correct, then what was the stemming origin for this attitude to be like other nations?  There cannot be any other answer for the people had not fully repented of their time in Egypt and they definitely had not forgotten their livelihood back in captivity but for some reason desired to return to such conditions.  It is amazing how God remembers a set of someone’s past when He warns them about what they are about to return into and the words of God here serve as a brilliant reminder of how God wants His beloved Creations to live in freedom that He brings us into, not the lies of the world around us.

What tends to occur is that when people do not let go of the past and trust the future they shall never be free and when that freedom originates from God the battle must be completely understood for if not then the enemy can enter without notice and destroy everything that has been set free; this means you.  It is this process that God once again is trying to prevent before He grants their wishes but as we see the instructions to Samuel God is prepared to allow such actions to occur but not before God explains to them one more time what they should expect.  God never will just allow His children to scatter and run off alone without showing them the warnings first which is exactly why we have the Bible.  God allows the wishes of the people to take place and when these events occur, God watches His children walk right back into the captive arms of their previous grotesque captors.  Nowhere does it mention in God’s Word that the process of turning their existence over to the world was an easy process, for it was not too long after this change that the king of Israel faced a really troubling situation.  As time went along the nation of Israel saw good kings and bad kings come and go but with the worldly intentions to “fit in” with the other nations it soon became clear that God was not wanted and the roots into the world grew deeper until their nation knew no other ruler but the secular ruler.  The transition into captivity within a worldly society’s journey is now in progress and as each king approaches and then reigns over them, the journey continues until their final captivity status is achieved.

When prisoners of war or any other person or group is taken captive they are immediately separated and from that point onward have little or no contact with those who they were involved with, the same occurs here with Israel.  When does the captivity begin you ask?  It begins when the nation of Israel is first divided into two kingdoms, for now, they are permanently divided amongst themselves and thus lack the unity necessary to adhere to their original Creation.  They had no clue but after all of the warnings God presented to them over the generations before them concerning wanting to be like the other nations, the nation of Israel was back in the land of Egypt and living under the captive laws as they had once before.  So, I guess the next question would be this: how do you like those onions and garlic pieces next to the Nile?  It is known that Israel was not physically back in Egypt but the concept of the slave-like conditions that they were in along with the slave-like mentality that goes along with this setting was alive and well within their hearts; for it was their hearts that wanted to return.  One may be free physically but when the mind and heart return to a previous setting you are now a captive again and no longer free.

God gave Israel warning after warning not only while wandering in the wilderness but also while they were identifying themselves as an individual nation.  Like most humans who wish to do things on their own, Israel forgot about their true roots and refused to dig deep in the memories of their past to find out the real reason why they were free.  Today, our societies are facing the same identity crises and while I do not like to use that word it is true and is also at a dangerous level.  There is no nation that is left out of this worldly equality plan that smacks us in the face each day we wake up.  The craze today is to try and have everyone walk, talk, behave, think, and act the same as everyone else, as long as it follows certain rules and regulations.  The young leaders and the majority of the young people living in this nation of ours have grabbed hold to this belief and are now running down every city in the nation with its flag of occupation.  Is it that difficult to understand that by ignoring God and His warnings that Israel wanted to keep Egypt within their lives and more likely did not know exactly how much Egypt had infiltrated their existence?

Just as Israel was, this nation was created and set apart for a higher and greater example to those who want freedom from worldly occupation status’ not to be subjected into another painful fight from those who wish to suppress their constituents.  For a long time, it was hard for us to imagine why Israel decided to abandon God and seek the worldly avenues around them but all of those incoherent propositions are clear as the bright day’s sky now.  There is an enormous fight ongoing for the status of this nation and unless we realize exactly what is going on here, not only in the physical but in the spiritual as well our nation will fall right back into the same conditions Israel found them in.  Captivity comes in many shapes and forms but one issue always remains in this state of living you are not free.  You may be able to ride across the country but if you have not the means to complete such a trek then you are out of luck and must sit and wait for the new master to come around and give you new orders.  We have fallen for so many lies that we fail to recognize the path that we are on and how eerily similar our path today is as the one Israel took back in 1 Samuel 8.  People, we need to end this rebellion before it lands us in hot water and a level of water that no one ever has witnessed before.

The nation of Israel put on display in 1 Samuel 8 a code of conduct that God recognized quite easily even while their own hearts did not see it.  Their voices became worldly in nature and their desires became self-absorbent and adherent to their wants instead of following the Ways of God through self-denial.  Do we have to go into an extensive account of that quality of life within this nation in this article?  How many times a day do we hear the word “me, me, me, me” or it is my right to do ______?  How many investigations are going to begin when someone disagrees with a different opinion?  Then how many people are going to be “suspended” from society because of their differing beliefs, all of these questions are coming into light each day and they shall continue and increase through newer tactics in order to grab hold of the ways of the world.  What I find so horrific is that for a while now we have heard the phrase if we do this or allow this to occur we will be returning to the dark ages.  This fear tactic is a lie from the pit of hell and we are allowing it to control our lives enough that we stand up and defend this lie without apology.

What Israel forgot and what we are dropping everything to run toward today is actually returning to the “dark ages”.  We are wanting a society that God did not establish for our lives but we have adopted the belief that our ways and wants are greater than God’s thus we no longer have to listen or obey what He has established for us.  Why didn’t Israel have the capability to stop the splitting of their nation into two kingdoms?  It baffles me of how people would allow such divisions to procure a permanent solution of division, but look at us today we are sprinting toward this type of level.  This splitting of Israel did not stop at the physical level but the spiritual as well for we must remember that BOTH kingdoms fell into captivity at a future point.  We must also not forget that even after God allowed Israel to leave His Ways He never gave up trying to pull them back into freedom, His freedom.  We have a leader in this nation that is trying to slow this sprinting toward destruction down a bit; and yes, President Trump was put into office by God so that God can once again grab our attention before it is too late.  But the majority of people and a great number of leaders in our capital do not want change but the worldly status quo and this is evident as each sunrise occurs as well.

Church, your authority is in shambles.  Is there 1 area of the Bible or even society that all can agree upon today?  I venture to say that many do not even know the Lord while they consider themselves to be Christians because if they really had a heart for God and His Word then they would not feel the need to support the world by any measure.  Church, we have abandoned the ways that Jesus told us to obey and have not only forgotten God but have also fallen in the trap of having a heart that wants to return to Egypt.  We fail to recognize the fact that our leader is trying to keep us from going back but just as this nation is rejecting the leader God placed in our presence to keep the nation from returning to its Egypt we are setting the example for the world in this manner and we have no clue about our actions.  The ministers who are speaking up about this subject are being persecuted by their own not to mention those around them who do not believe that God is on our side.  We need to understand where our position should be in Christ and where it actually is in the world.  We need to once again focus our hearts on God and His Ways so that we can teach our nation about what they are trying to accomplish and do you believe that our congregations shall stand for the Truth when this nation falls?  Remember, Satan loves to torment deeper and longer those who actually knew God and at one time loved Him.

Take a stand for God and His Ways, Church.  It is the only way that we have any chance to survive and it is the only way that those who are seeking life and happiness to find it.  We are the ones who represent God on this earth and it is our job to present such a vital and eternal message.  The question at hand is if we are going to be preaching the message of salvation and Covenant protection or are we going to be teaching countless how to return into captivity.  The truth of this article is that if we complain long enough about God and how we do not need Him He shall grant us that program but as we see in the Bible that path of worldly equality is only an offering to slavery and a state of binding that will lead to our overthrow and destruction both physically and spiritually.  Think about this Church, we are the key to this path of this nation and other nations and it is time that we choose God and allow Him to heal our land.  God asks us today to take a serious and hard look at our hearts and allow Him to show us the areas that need covering and changed.  This is the only way possible that we can teach the truth about God and not follow and speak about the lies the world wishes to promote.  God does not want us to return to Egypt He wants us to show up in the Promised Land but we first have to allow Him access to our hearts so He can take Egypt out of desires.

DLB